Chapter 1 A Male Mate The Moon Goddess's Cruel Joke!

Andrew's POV

The ceiling-high hall was alive with tension, resonating with the hum of anticipatory whispers and the soft clinking of glasses. Something momentous was unfolding before me, but all I could feel was the suffocating weight of expectation on my chest. It was to be a night of celebration, a celebration of my sister Laurette's union with her partner, but I could not shake this feeling of void, something that I had not yet articulated. The pack was gathered, and I, the future heir of the Furstone Pack, was standing at the top of the sweeping staircase, looking down upon it all. I had spent the previous year at Alpha Wolf Academy, training, learning the art of leadership, of controlling both my wolf and my emotions. But despite all the lessons and all the training, nothing had prepared me for this moment.

I was not ready to take my place in the world I was born into. A world of strength, heritage, and bloodlines. A world where being the son of the pack leader equated to wearing the pack's weight on your shoulders, with or without you wanting it to be so.

My father's words lingered at the periphery of my mind. You must prove yourself, Andrew. The pack does not want to be led by a coward.

I clenched my jaw, forcing the thought away. The pack wasn't what worried me tonight. It was something else.

Laurette's ritual was a great day, a day that would cement her and her mate and, by association, the dominance of the Furstone Pack. The entire pack was there to witness their bonding, the way the Moon Goddess had ordained. It was their night to be joyful, to revel in finding their other half. And still, there seemed to be an undercurrent shift in the energy, a nervous spark that I could not disregard.

I had noticed the smile on my sister's face when her lover had arrived, and for a moment, I had wondered what it would feel like. The sense of knowing, belonging, of being tied to another soul so deeply. But that had been a passing fancy. A luxury I couldn't afford to allow. My life would never be my own as the heir. Not until I proved myself worthy of the place my father had prepared."

And that meant finding myself a Luna to sit upon the throne beside me. Just a capable one. A strong one. A. right one.

A voice sliced through my reverie.

"Andrew."

I spun around and my little sister, Ann, was beside me. She was my opposite in so many ways-free, not caring about the burden of responsibilities that were on my shoulders. Her laughter was contagious, and tonight, her eyes sparkled with glee.

"You look like you've been chipped out of stone," she teased. "Are you going to stand there all night, or are you going to join the party?"

I smiled weakly, thankful for her being there, but my mind was elsewhere. She didn't get it. She couldn't. She wasn't burdened with the same weight of expectation as I was.

"I'll come in soon," I answered, trying to keep my voice level. "Just need a minute."

Ann gave me a sidelong glance and then disappeared into the crowd of people. Seeing her disappear into the crowd, I allowed my eyes to roam back to the room below. The music was louder, the laughter of the guests erupting in the room. All seemed to be fine. So fine, indeed, that something was. amiss.

And then I smelled it.

It was a soft one, an earthy scent that roused my wolf to agitation far down in my belly. I sniffed again, in disbelief as the puzzle unfolded in my senses. It was nothing like any smell I'd ever picked up wind-deeper and richer, with that smell of damp earth after a rainstorm and an underlying note that was unmistakably sweet.

My wolf, normally a steady presence within me, overwhelmed me. Mate, it raged in my mind. Mate. Mate. Mate.

I stood stock-still.

No. This was not possible. The scent intensified, became more powerful, until it was as if it had wrapped around me. All the warnings my body was shouting at me to move, to find, to claim this thing, no matter what, were screaming at me. My heart thundered in my chest, fists clenched at my side.

This was a given. This was the scent of my mate.

I turned around, my eyes scanning the crowd of people below. There, standing behind a clump of guests, I saw him.

A boy.

He was standing right behind Ann, his blond hair shining in the light as if made of filaments of silk. His eyes-a brilliant blue-scanned the room and then landed on mine. The instant our gazes met, something inside me broke. A pull, magnetic and impossible to resist, pulled at my chest like some unseen force drawing me to him.

I felt myself gasp in shock. This was real. My mate was in front of me.

But there was a problem. A big one.

My mate was not what I had expected. I had always imagined someone fierce, someone strong who could stand by my side and be the pack leader. Not this kid-this stranger. Someone who broke all the expectations, all the conventions that I'd learned since the day I was born. A kid who was not even from our pack, a kid whose name I did not even know.

My wolf growled a second time, this time more persistently, but I suppressed it. Something wasn't right. It couldn't be. The Moon Goddess did not err, but this. This felt like an error.

I spun away, trying to quash the tsunami of rage that threatened to sweep over me. But it was no use. My wolf was not so easily pushed aside; it was crying in my head, telling me to go to him, to learn him, to discover why the connection was calling to me so fiercely.

I couldn't rise. Not yet.

Jamie, as I would soon learn his name to be, smiled softly at some comment Ann had made. He was so unaware of the storm brewing inside me, of how the whole world had just spun on its axis. He did not have any idea what was happening. He would not feel the connection yet. He was young, too unaware of the power of our connection.

But I did.

And it was consuming me.

An unexpected burst of laughter from the crowd jolted me from my distraction, and I looked down, trying to snap myself back. The world continued to move on around me, oblivious to the chaos in my life. Everyone seemed so normal, so happy, and yet my entire future was falling apart at the seams.

My gaze returned to Jamie, and I could feel the weight of my father's expectations bearing down on me even harder. This. This was not my fate.

And yet, there he stood, as if he were destined to be there.

I turned, could not stay there anymore. The night had begun to unravel. I needed to escape, to think. But no matter how far I ran, no matter how fast I could go, the temptation of Jamie's scent lingered, calling at my very soul.

Mate. It echoed in my mind once again.

I needed to get away from there.

But deep within, I knew the truth: nowhere to hide from fate.